The North Central IPM Center’s newsletter, “The Central Issue” went out to subscribers this week. Topics include sudden oak death reports in Kansas and Indiana, the Midwest Grows Green Lawns and Land Forum, working group updates, and more. Read the newsletter here.

Growers and retailers will have access to Syngenta’s newest fungicide seed treatment, Vayantis, for next year’s season. It can be used on corn, soybeans, canola, oilseed rape and cereals. Read more on Greenbook

“Many pesticides that have been banned or are being phased out in the EU, Brazil and China, are still widely used in the USA, according to a study published in the open access journal Environmental Health.” “Study author Nathan Donley at the Center for Biological Diversity, USA said: “The USA is generally regarded as being… Read more »

The Environmental Protection Agency is pulling a dozen products containing neonicotinoids from the market. Research suggests the chemical is a danger to honeybees. The announcement was made this Monday that the registrations had been cancelled as part of a legal settlement. Read more on the Washington Post.

Two lawsuits, filed by ten Starbucks customers, an employee and two pest contractors, have been filed against Starbucks for exposing customers and workers to a potentially harmful pesticide. The suits allege that several Manhattan Starbucks locations frequently utilized strips that emit dichlorvos vapor in their stores to control fruit flies and roaches, despite the danger… Read more »

KCUR published an article today discussing the lack of farm worker pesticide exposure incident data in the midwest. “Harvest Public Media asked the departments of agriculture in Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska how many worker-exposure incidents were reported between 2013 and 2017. Officials in Iowa, Nebraska and Colorado were able to answer.” Read… Read more »

Bayer on Monday was ordered by a Northern California jury to pay over $2 billion to an elderly couple who say they were diagnosed with cancer after using the company’s glyphosate-based pesticide Roundup. Bayer is planning on appealing the lawsuit and claims the court’s ruling contradicts the Environmental Protection Agency’s finding that there are “no… Read more »

Defying the Trump EPA’s longstanding inaction, California is now in the process of banning chlorpyrifos, a widely used pesticide that has been linked to brain damage in children. California governor Gavin Newsom has also proposed $5.7m in new funding to support the transition from chlorpyrifos to “safer, more sustainable alternatives”. DowDuPont spokesman Gregg Schmidt said… Read more »

A bill that would ban the use of pesticides containing chlorpyrifos was passed by the Senate Health Committee in early April, step one in the process of a total ban becoming law. Read more on the Sun Herald.

Yesterday, the Tick Encounter Research Center launched their Experiment campaign. They are raising $8000 to help fund a more efficient TickSpotters platform that will give them the ability to collect more data and respond faster to tick photo submissions. This new-and-improved platform will help us answer the question: Does personalized tick prevention education work to… Read more »